Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) can help save your data from an impending hard-drive failure. But you need the right software to see and interpret the SMART warnings most hard drives provide. Fortunately, there’s free software to help.

When system trouble affects more than one program, it can be hard to figure out exactly what’s going on. Here are two ways to peek under the Windows covers and see whether a common thread unites the different failures.

A recent mention of Soluto’s utility (also called Soluto), which can semi-automatically reduce PC startup times, brought a flood of reader mail. Here are some commonly asked questions and comments about the app, with my responses.

Instructions for system tweaks in Vista and Windows 7 don’t always translate well to Windows XP — for example, reducing shutdown delays. Fortunately, making an XP system power down more quickly isn’t hard, if you follow this illustrated step-by-step guide.

Many PCs ship with OEM-installed partitions whose purpose can be puzzling. Here’s a description of two common types of OEM partitions — and how to handle them as they apply to backups, System Restore, and the like.

The open-source GNU Image Manipulation Program can do just about anything the expensive, full-blown versions of Photoshop can do. GIMP can save you hundreds of dollars — but it can also be difficult to master. Here’s help.

Windows collects lots of temporary files that can, over time, consume large amounts of disk space and slow system performance. But even when you’re diligent about cleaning them out, some temporary files resist removal — and for good reasons.

Win7’s Restore Previous Versions system is designed to automatically back up your PC and let you easily recover earlier versions of almost any file or folder. But some faulty configurations can prevent RPV (and related systems such as System Restore) from working as they should.

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